INDIANAPOLIS >> As he patrols the sideline, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni may encounter frustrations that go beyond his injury-riddled roster matching up against the Eastern Conference’s best team.

After working together on two U.S. men’s Olympic teams, D’Antoni had hoped to hire former Seattle and Portland coach Nate McMillan to oversee the Lakers’ defense. Instead, McMillan accepted an associate coaching position with the Indiana Pacers (42-14), who host the Lakers (19-37) tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

“Mike and I talked about it. But at the time, he wasn’t sure the position would be open,” McMillan said in a recent interview with this newspaper. “If something opened, he had some interest. But at the time, I was starting to talk to Indiana and the position came open here. After looking at Indiana’s situation and interviewing here, I felt it was a good fit.”

According to a person familiar with his thought process, McMillan also took the Pacers’ position because of the team’s recent success and a higher salary.

McMillan mentioned his role as an associate head coach under Frank Vogel entails “overseeing a little bit of everything,” ranging from game management, studying film, providing scouting reports and mentoring Vogel. That role bodes similar to Brian Shaw’s duties his past two seasons in Indiana before accepting the Denver Nuggets’ head-coaching position. D’Antoni envisioned McMillan implementing the Lakers’ defensive concepts, a responsibility that eventually fell to Kurt Rambis.

“He’s just a good coach,” D’Antoni said about McMillan. “He’s so knowledgeable, passionate and loves his job. He knows it and he’s been a head coach, which is important. He’s been everywhere and has done it all from a player, coach and has a wealth of information. We had a good relationship and he was fun to work with.”

The Lakers rank 29th out of 30 NBA teams in total defense (allowing 105.9 points per game) and the Pacers lead the league in that category (90.9 points per game). But those issues arguably reflect more the Lakers’ offseason departures of Dwight Howard (left for Houston) and Metta World Peace (waived) and an injury-riddled roster than the coaching staff.

“Mike is a very good coach. Going into Los Angeles at the time he did was a difficult challenge following Phil Jackson,” McMillan said. “People had expectations for the team that was a bit high in the sense that those guys were much older. If they were five years younger, the hype about the team would’ve been right and fair.”

Conditioning test

Within a week, Kent Bazemore went from a seldom-used guard on the Golden State Warriors to the Lakers’ most recent starting small forward. The Lakers acquired Bazemore along with MarShon Brooks from Golden State for Steve Blake. Bazemore has averaged 16 points in 31 minutes through two games with the Lakers, but he conceded needing to sharpen his conditioning.

“I have to settle down,” Bazemore said. “I get a little erratic sometimes. At the end of the game, I get out of character and go too fast. It’s anxious tension. I want to go out and go hard right away. But I have to work my way into the game.”

No pain, no gain

Despite persistent swelling in his left knee, forward Nick Young believes he can play through the pain.

Young scored a modest 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting in the Lakers’ loss Sunday to Brooklyn after sitting out the previous two weeks because of a bone bruise and nondisplaced fracture in the patella of his left knee. Young also admitted he didn’t receive an MRI before returning.

But he remains hesistant to sit. Young has a $1.2 million player option this offseason and wants to maximize his worth to the Lakers. He also admitted seeing Bazemore and Brooks as potential threats toward his place in the rotation.

“I want to play. I don’t have too many games left,” Young said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen after the season. So I just want to keep having that Lakers uniform on.”

Mark Medina has been the Lakers beat writer for the Los Angeles Daily News since 2012. He also works as a Lakers insider for AM570 and is heard on national radio outlets, including The Dan Patrick Show, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, The Chris Mannix Show, Fox Sports Radio, CBS Sports Radio, Yahoo! Sports Radio and SB Nation Radio. Medina also appears frequently on Spectrum SportsNet and NBC4's "Going Roggin."

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